Anybody hearing how bad Larry Fitzgerald's knee injury is? It didn't look good and I'm assuming the worst. Hopefully it will be a deal where he has a MCL sprain or something and can come back in time for week 17 and the playoffs... week 17 just to shake off the rust. Hopefully not an ACL.

Mike Holmgren's dalliance with the Browns might not be prompting the Seahawks to crap or get off the crapper.

But it's apparently forcing another team to move quickly.

ESPN 980 in Washington is reporting that Redskins executive V.P. of football operations Vinny Cerrato has resigned.

Adding credibility to the report is the fact that Redskins owner Daniel Snyder owns the station.

The move, which apparently would have happened at the end of the season, likely means that owner Daniel Snyder wants to make a run at Holmgren.

We say this with full realization of the fact that Holmgren called out the Redskins in early November for stripping coach Jim Zorn -- a former Big Show assistant -- of play-calling duties.

"That bothered me a lot," Holmgren told ESPN Radio in Chicago at the time. "Jim Zorn is one of the nice people. I'm a nice guy, but I'm not that nice. Jim Zorn is really a nice man. What they did, I did not like it at all."

But if Snyder can pin the decision on Cerrato, and if Snyder is willing to allow Zorn to continue as coach under Holmgren's supervision, maybe this arrangement can work.

Another potential attraction for Holmgren could be the presence of Sherm Lewis, his long-time offensive coordinator in Green Bay.

With two prime-time games only six days apart, it makes no sense for the Redskins to make such a dramatic change only three games before the end of the season, unless it was done specifically to give the 'Skins a seat at the Big Show's table.

UPDATE: Here's a link to ESPN 980 confirming the news. The headline? "No Red Zone Tomorrow," which refers to Cerrato's weekly radio show on the network.

Holmgren called out the Redskins in early November for stripping coach Jim Zorn of play-calling duties.

"That bothered me a lot," Holmgren told ESPN Radio in Chicago at the time. "Jim Zorn is one of the nice people. I'm a nice guy, but I'm not that nice. Jim Zorn is really a nice man. What they did, I did not like it at all."

On the same morning that executive V.P. of football operations Vinny Cerrato has resigned, triggering speculation that Mike Holmgren or Mike Shanahan could be taking the reins of the Redskins, Jay Glazer of FOX has dropped a bomb on us, baby.

Glazer reports that Redskins coaches were advised today that the teams is in talks with former Raiders and Buccaneers executive Bruce Allen.

Allen's father, George, was one of the most beloved coaches in franchise history not named "Joe Gibbs."

As Glazer points out, the Redskins would be required to satisfy the Rooney Rule when filling the top front-office position. In this case, either the Redskins already have quietly satisfied the requirement, or Allen would be hired for a position that does not presently require compliance with the Rooney Rule.

The arrival of Allen undoubtedly would trigger speculation that the next move would be to dump coach Jim Zorn and pursue Jon Gruden, who partnered with Allen both in Oakland and Tampa.

On the same morning that executive V.P. of football operations Vinny Cerrato has resigned, triggering speculation that Mike Holmgren or Mike Shanahan could be taking the reins of the Redskins, Jay Glazer of FOX has dropped a bomb on us, baby.

Glazer reports that Redskins coaches were advised today that the teams is in talks with former Raiders and Buccaneers executive Bruce Allen.

Allen's father, George, was one of the most beloved coaches in franchise history not named "Joe Gibbs."

As Glazer points out, the Redskins would be required to satisfy the Rooney Rule when filling the top front-office position. In this case, either the Redskins already have quietly satisfied the requirement, or Allen would be hired for a position that does not presently require compliance with the Rooney Rule.

The arrival of Allen undoubtedly would trigger speculation that the next move would be to dump coach Jim Zorn and pursue Jon Gruden, who partnered with Allen both in Oakland and Tampa.

Gruden is not going back to coaching next year. He just re-upped his contract with ESPN and all you have to do is watch one monday night game to realize how much he enjoys being in the booth as opposed to on the field. I would put money on Gruden not returning to football next year, probably the year after, and very possibly ever.

Anybody growing up as a kid in Colorado in the mid 70s remembers BroncoMania. It is the reason I am as passionate about this team as I am. Even as a very young kid you understood how special it was. I believe a team can only experience that type of magic once. After that the innocence is gone. Even SB 32 wasn't the same in terms of pure mania.

Living in New Orleans now and having gone through Katrina. This City is experiencing a very similar kind of mania with the Saints. Only different. The Saints are this City and this City is the Saints. Very hard to describe unless you are here.

Read one guys view on it from ESPN. A long read....but if you like football magic, hope, faith and a love affair with a City and a Team...it is worth the time.
Saints the soul of America's city
NEW ORLEANS -- The soul of New Orleans is in a trumpet and a low-ceilinged bar. It's in the free red beans in the back. It's in the art hanging near the food that has two dogs howling at a New Orleans Saints moon. It's in the voice of Kermit Ruffins, two hours into his standing Thursday night gig at a packed club hidden in the neighborhood behind the French Quarter, the place weathered and peeling like the side of a workingman's boat.

He plays a song he wrote, "All I Want for Christmas Is the Saints in the Super Bowl," and the crowd dances and sings all the words. When he takes a break, he calls me in closer. There's something he wants to show me. He undoes his thin black tie, and the top two buttons, then pulls both his collared shirt and T-shirt down just enough so I can see. I notice the top point first, and slowly, the entire tattoo comes into view, a month old, enormous, covering his entire chest. I start laughing, and so does he. A symbol of the city adorned with a symbol of the city. Kermit Ruffins has gotten an enormous fleur-de-lis, the Saints' helmet logo, tattooed on his chest.

"Only in New Orleans," he says, winking. "I'm killing 'em when I take off my shirt at the beach. Especially at the Super Bowl."

Hello, madness

These are strange and beautiful days in New Orleans, and they must be seen to be believed. I've visited the city dozens of times since I was a boy, lived and worked there for a spell and last week, when I went down to experience the mania over the Saints' undefeated season firsthand, I found myself not sure whether every street was a dream. Some moments made me laugh, and others were so full of a desperate love that I had tears in my eyes.

Where do you even begin? Maybe you describe the couture shops that have replaced the latest fashions on the storefront mannequins with Saints T-shirts? Maybe you tell how vampire novelist and native New Orleanian Anne Rice, never much of a football fan and now living on the West Coast, recently ordered a Drew Brees jersey with "Anne" on the back. Maybe you use numbers: 84 percent of the televisions in town were tuned to the recent Monday night game against the Patriots. Maybe you use bizarre trends, such as an NOPD cop telling me the 911 calls almost stop when the Saints play and there's been only one murder during a game this year.

I like this best, here, at a Christmas party for children at one of the columned and terraced battleships on tree-lined St. Charles Avenue. Everyone calls the home The Wedding Cake House, and it's owned by a prominent local attorney whose family is close to Rita Benson LeBlanc, the owner and executive vice president of the football franchise. The kids are all crowded around Santa Claus … until the arrival of Gumbo, the beloved St. Bernard-costumed mascot of the Saints. The kids flock to Gumbo, and there are screams and hugs and photos and, in the madness, a few of the adults look over to see Santa, totally alone and ignored, trying to figure out what to do.

Eventually, they said, he just left.

These are strange and beautiful days, and there is something being created right now, something that goes well beyond the success of a football team. One night, three of us roll through the streets of downtown New Orleans. LeBlanc is driving her dark Mercedes. In the back seat is the head of the federal government's Gulf Coast Rebuilding team. They are talking about the Saints' perfect season and the things athletic success can realistically mean to a town. We pass reopened hotels and fixed houses, the blue tarps that doubled for roofs for the past four years gone. We pass throngs of tourists who have returned, and local restaurants that are packed, and out there in the night, implicit in everything that is of this place, there is a defiant beating heart.

Yes, there is something happening in New Orleans, a strange and beautiful story not so much about a town that still needs distraction from a hurricane but about a professional sports team changing the nature of the relationship between franchise and fan. "It's the entire city," LeBlanc says as we drive. "Everybody feels it. It's not because we're selling it. Faith or fate, whatever you believe in, you cannot watch this football team and not have faith."

Former NFL running back Lawrence Phillips, one of the biggest top-ten first-round busts of all time, has been sentenced to more than 31 years in prison for attacking his girlfriend, and for driving his car into three teens, according to the Associated Press.

The incidents occurred in 2005.

The Rams made Phillips the sixth overall pick in the 1996 draft, eight spots before Eddie George was selected by the Titans.

The quick collapse of Phillips' career makes the franchise's ability to win a Super Bowl only three years later even more amazing.

Despite a 5-8 record and a third straight season of missed playoffs in a year of expectations much higher than that, Bears coach Lovie Smith will return in 2010, according to John Mullin of CSN Chicago. (Thanks for the tip, BlogdownChicagoBears.com.)

Citing "two highly placed individuals within the organization," Mullin explains that there will not be a change at the top of the organization, due in part to concerns regarding a work stoppage in 2011.

Mullin also explains that the team will likely be making no announcements in this regard, and that the proof will flow from the fact that Smith isn't fired when the season ends.

The report says nothing about the status of offensive coordinator Ron Turner. If he isn't fired, we recommend buying stock in any companies that sell pitchforks and/or torches in the greater Chicago area.

Former NFL running back Lawrence Phillips, one of the biggest top-ten first-round busts of all time, has been sentenced to more than 31 years in prison for attacking his girlfriend, and for driving his car into three teens, according to the Associated Press.

The incidents occurred in 2005.

The Rams made Phillips the sixth overall pick in the 1996 draft, eight spots before Eddie George was selected by the Titans.

The quick collapse of Phillips' career makes the franchise's ability to win a Super Bowl only three years later even more amazing.

The Ravens and Philadelphia Eagles both moved back the start time of their Sunday home games from 1 p.m. ET to 4:15 p.m. ET, in order to give their cities time to deal with snow removal.

The Eagles are hosting the San Francisco 49ers, who arrived in Philadelphia Friday night.

The storm, a classic Nor'easter moving up the Atlantic coast, was expected to dump a foot of snow or more from the mid-Atlantic states to New England through early Sunday morning. It pushed back or postponed college sports events and complicated travel plans for teams and fans alike.

Former Packers and Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren was expected to give the Browns an answer on Monday regarding whether he'd accept an employment off from the team.

He has given them an answer.

And the answer is yes.

Holmgren has agreed to become President of the team. Mike Keenan, who previously occupied that role, will become the team's CFO.

"We are pleased to announce that Mike Holmgren has agreed to join the Cleveland Browns," owner Randy Lerner in a statement released by the team. "We will spend the rest of the week finalizing the details of the agreement and will make a formal announcement next week, at which time we will make him available to the media."

We're not sure what Lerner envisions by way of a "formal announcement" next week, given that the news of Holmgren's arrival has been, you know, formally announced by the team.

Maybe there will be a party, complete with confetti and cake and a special appearance by Eric the Clown.

Which, of course, that might be the current head coach's trade name come 2010.

More than half the league is 12 days away from the offseason, so teams are begin to prepare their rosters for the future.

And the Chiefs have decided their future doesn't include wide receiver Mark Bradley.

Kansas City dumped the former second-round pick of the Bears Tuesday, and signed wideout Quinten Lawrence. Bradley revived his career last year late in the season, but continually struggled with mental mistakes in 2009. He was fourth on the team with 320 receiving yards.

The Chiefs also placed tight end Brad Cottam on injured reserve. Cottam suffered a cracked cervical vertebra, according to the team. No spinal cord damage was discovered.

More than half the league is 12 days away from the offseason, so teams are begin to prepare their rosters for the future.

And the Chiefs have decided their future doesn't include wide receiver Mark Bradley.

Kansas City dumped the former second-round pick of the Bears Tuesday, and signed wideout Quinten Lawrence. Bradley revived his career last year late in the season, but continually struggled with mental mistakes in 2009. He was fourth on the team with 320 receiving yards.

The Chiefs also placed tight end Brad Cottam on injured reserve. Cottam suffered a cracked cervical vertebra, according to the team. No spinal cord damage was discovered.

With the No. 1 seed in the NFC all sewn up, the New Orleans Saints will rest Pro Bowl quarterback Drew Brees and will start Mark Brunell in Sunday's regular season finale against the Carolina Panthers, according to a report in the Times-Picayune on Friday.

With the No. 1 seed in the NFC all sewn up, the New Orleans Saints will rest Pro Bowl quarterback Drew Brees and will start Mark Brunell in Sunday's regular season finale against the Carolina Panthers, according to a report in the Times-Picayune on Friday.

And the Chiefs have decided their future doesn't include wide receiver Mark Bradley.

Kansas City dumped the former second-round pick of the Bears Tuesday, and signed wideout Quinten Lawrence. Bradley revived his career last year late in the season, but continually struggled with mental mistakes in 2009. He was fourth on the team with 320 receiving yards..

The Bears should pick him up again. His penchant for dropping passing wouldn't be a problem since Jay throws to the other team 50% of the time anyway.